καὶ τὴν τῆς φωνῆς, κ.τ.λ. ‘Further, men deem that the wide currency (κοινότητα) and standard character (μετριότητα) of the Attic idiom, no less than a general flexibility of mind and love of literature, contribute not a little to the formation of an orator; and hence they conceive, not without reason, that all masters of eloquence are pupils of Athens’. μετριότητα: because the Attic dialect — afterwards the basis of the κοινὴ διάλεκτος — represents a temperate compromise between the Ionic and the Doric, — elastic without too much softness, precise and vigorous without harshness. In Thuc. 7. 63 Nicias reminds the μέτοικοι serving in the Athenian army that their familiarity with the Attic dialect had been a recommendation for them to all Greeks: τῆς... φωνῆς...τῇ ἐπιστήμῃ...ἐθαυμάζεσθε κατὰ τὴν Ἑλλάδα. — εὐτραπελίαν: cp. Thuc. II. 41 (of the typical Athenian), ἐπὶ πλεῖστ᾽ ἂν εἴδη καὶ μετὰ χαρίτων μάλιστ᾽ ἂν εὐτραπέλως τὸ σῶμα αὔταρκες παρέχεσθαι. Here, εὐτραπελία=‘flexibility of intelligence’: not exactly ‘versatility’, as with Thuc., nor yet ‘liveliness’, ‘wit’, as with Aristotle (Eth. N. II. 7. § 13).
